In-Depends-dence Day

Another late night trying to get tired. Steve and I are going over to Robin and Evan's tomorrow -- I mean today -- in the early afternoon. Aunt Kit is down visiting and it sounded like a good idea to drop over for a visit, even though I'm planning on going up to Arroyo Grande for a visit in the next week or two.

The July 4th weekend was pretty much like it has been for the last few years. We go over to John's place in South Pasadena for a small get-together of friends and one of his delicious strawberry cakes (which you see glowing intensely on the table below John) and hot dogs and salads, of course. Then we head out to the street to watch the upper parts of the South Pasadena fireworks. It's all very festive and over by 10 o'clock, which is just right for the evening.

Yes, there's a huge fireworks spectacle at the Rose Bowl each year, I know, but neither Steve nor I really enjoy the huge crowds, and we don't know anyone who lives close enough to view them from their home, so South Pasadena will have to do.

Let's see: In the last week I've applied for unemployment, even though I'm still receiving my severance package (you can do that in California; I'm hoping to get a small cash buffer going with a few weeks overlapped so that we can handle anything untoward that occurs in the coming months). Also, I completed the introductory course in Flash CS3 and am now moving on to the introductory course on Actionscript, which is the language that makes Flash go interactive (meaning you, the visitor to a site, can click on things to make stuff happen and put information into little boxes and process information).

At times it all seems very surreal, but no more difficult than learning BASIC or COBOL back in college. Then we had to put our entire program on a stack of punch cards and put them in a bin with a rubber band around them; then we'd some back in two days or so and see if the program had run correctly. If it hadn't, you'd have to check the readout, find the problem and the corresponding punch card, revise the card, put it back in the correct place in the stack, put a rubber band around it and put it in a bin...you get the picture.

So I've got to get my butt to bed now. I don't want to be a bleary-eyed for my visit to the Hollywood Hills tomorrow. Hopefully, writing this will calm my nerves and relax my mind.